Alcademics.com

Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter. 

Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker. 

Today there is still ice harvesting on many American lakes and ponds. As far as I can tell it's more historic reenactment more than practical, with most of the places that have an ice harvest limited to a single day of the year. 

Most places bring out the old tools - the long saws and the hooks - and allow people to cut up pre-scored sections of ice. Then they float it to the collection point on the lake, grab it with a hook, and slide it on a series of ramps (or sometimes pull it with a horse or tractor) into an ice house, where the blocks of ice are stacked with layers of sawdust in between.

I was looking for one that I might visit and came up with several places, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you live nearby. 

Modern Ice Harvests

- Tobyhanna ice harvest - Near the Steamtown National Historic Site near Scranton, Pennsylvania. They run a train to the ice harvest. A write-up on the harvest is here.

- Howell Living History Farm - in Lambertville, New Jersey. I believe the ice harvest date is January 28th. In addition to harvesting, you can make ice cream with the ice. Information from last year is here.

- Curran Homestead - Located near Bangor, Maine. The next Ice harvest is on February 11, 2012. 

- Cape Pond Ice - This is not an ice harvesting location, but a modern manufactured ice house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They offer tours. 

- Thompson Ice House -  Located in South Bristol, Maine, which looks pretty far out there. The ice harvest is in February but the date hasn't been announced yet.

- Hanford Mills Museum -  Not far from Cooperstown or Oneonta, New York. The 2012 ice harvest is on February 4, 2012. Besides the ice harvest there are vintage cooking demonstrations and lots of food for sale.

- Brookfield Ice Harvest - In Brookfield, Vermont, a ways from Burlington. Not sure of the website or the exact date, but last year it was January 29. Call 802-276-3959 for information. Some details here. "Activities include ice cutting and ice boom demonstrations, an ice-hauling contest, a chance to try hand-made snowshoes and view ice sculpting."

 - Longfellow's Wayside Inn - In Sudbury, Massachusetts. Nothing on the calendar yet, but last year they did ice harvesting.

 - Old Sturbridge Village - In central Massachussetts. Had ice harvest demos in the past, I don't see any on the calendar for 2012. 

 - Ice Alaska - This is more of an ice carving celebration/competition near Fairbanks. The park is open February 28 - March 25, 2012. They harvest ice from an on-site pond with a more modern tool that looks like a saw on legs. I don't know if the ice harvest is demonstrated for the public or not. 

- I haven't seen any case where it's a public event, but some Amish people harvest ice. There are some good write-ups online. 

Please let me know in the comments if you find any others. 

Join Me At Speed Rack on January 8 in San Francisco

I'm helping to judge a cocktail contest in which bad-ass women bartenders make cocktails as fast as they can and then we judge how they actually taste. You are in charge of cheering and drinking.

You should buy a ticket because this involves:

1. Significant numbers of cocktails on a Sunday afternoon with pretty much everyone good in the local bartending community. 
2. Empowerment of female bartenders.
3. The money goes toward breast cancer education, prevention and research.

This is 100% win.

You'll want to watch this video from the New York event.

Speed Rack Sneak Preview from Speed Rack on Vimeo.

 

The contestants are:

• Victoria Damato-Moran- Belden Taverna
• Rhachel Shaw- Rye
• Brooke Arthur- Wo Hing
• Tina Ross- Rickhouse
• Jennifer Colliau- Slanted Door/Small Hands Foods
• Gabrielle Barnes- Cantina
• Jennifer Embleton- Rye
• Yael Amyra- The New Easy
• Jessica Maria- Hotsy Totsy Club (Albany)
• Claire Sprouse- Rickhouse
• Jill Webster- Lazlo
• Lauren Steele- Rickhouse/Bourbon and Branch
• Melissa Boyd- Beretta
• Lucia Creed Gonzales- Prizefighter (Emeryville)
• Keli Rivers- Hotsy Totsy (Albany)
•  Kim Rosselle Flora/ Dona Tomas
• Gail Izaguirre- Laszlo
• Danielle Marchant- 222 Hyde

These guys will be the barbacks: Dominic Venegas (formerly of Range, Rye, Gitane, etc.), Jon Santer (Prizefighter), Neyah White (former NOPA now Yamazaki brand ambassador), Kevin Diedrich (Jasper's Corner Tap), Danny Ronen (omnipresent), Marcovaldo Dionysos (Smuggler's Cove), Marc Goldfine (83 Proof), Trevor Easter (Heaven's Dog), Tony Devencenzi (Bourbon & Branch), and Adrian Mc Carron (Rye on the Road).

Below are the full details. Buy tickets here. It will be awesome.

Great Seminars at SF Cocktail Week

The full schedule of seminars for San Francisco Cocktail Week were just announced, and there are some really great-sounding ones. I didn't know we had so many people coming in from out of town for this. 

The full seminar descriptions are here.

I just want to highlight the out-of-town guests who will be coming in to give talks. 

Don Lee, one of the biggest drink nerds in America, will be talking on The Nerdy Aspects of Gin Cocktails.

 Kirsten Amann, a founding member of LUPEC from Boston, will be part of a talk with scientists called The Science of Taste.

Philip Duff, a great speaker and former Irish citizen, will be talking about How San Francisco Saved The Irish Whiskey Category: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of The World’s First (And Finest!) Whiskey. 

John C. Burton, a guy from Santa Rosa with a huge collection of Bay Area bartending books and memorabilia, will be giving two talks on Sunday. The latter one sounds awesome: Bartending by the Bay: an Historical Tale through San Francisco’s Saloon and Cocktail History.

Have fun learning!

 

Camper English Speaking at SF Chefs Food Wine Industry Series

I'm giving a talk geared toward restaurant owners at next week's SF Chefs Food Wine next week, along with H. of Elixir and Duggan of Cantina. 

It's a little bit freaky in this day and age to walk into a notable restaurant only to find they haven't bothered to put out a cocktail menu, or the one they hand you is filled with flavored vodka drinks written by the beverage distributor rather than a bartender. 

We'll be talking about how a few simple changes to a cocktail program can make a big difference for a restaurant in terms of increasing both profit and press. 

Cocktail Clinic: The Bartender is In

Tuesday, August 2nd

3:00 PM to 5:00 PM

The Westin St. Francis

Presented by Ecolab and Liquor.com

Specialty cocktails, fresh ingredients, punches, and creating a cocktail menu can bring your bar media attention and make it more profitable. Find out how a few easy changes can create an exciting cocktail program in any restaurant overnight. This interactive session will be presented by a panel of experts led by H. Joseph Ehrmann (Elixir), Duggan McDonnell (Cantina), and Camper English (spirits journalist, San Francisco Chronicle, Alcademics.com).

Classes are free to GGRA members and are $25 for the general public.

Ticket Price: $25 
Visa Signature® cardholders receive special perks and ticket savings.

 

Sponsor Shout-Out: Tales of the Cocktail

Thanks to Tales of the Cocktail for sponsoring Alcademics! 

I'll be at the event, July 20-24 in New Orleans, for my fifth year in a row. Tickets are on sale now. 

This year I'll be one of five official Tales bloggers doing deep coverage of the event, and between now and then I'll be posting a few preview blog posts about seminars I'm looking forward to seeing. 

Will I tweet every drink every drink I have at Tales of the Cocktail again this year? Yeah, maybe. 

If you've never been to Tales before, I highly encourage you to come. It's a great time. 

Speaking on Social Media at the WSWA April 12

I'll be speaking on a social media panel at the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America annual Convention on April 12. 

Last year I also attended the convention. I learned what the WSWA is and what goes on at the convention, with some notes about the strengths and weaknesses of the three-tier system. I also looked at how the convention is changing and plans for the future. 

Here's the tentative title and info:

Social Media Marketing:  It’s Not an Option, It's Mandatory

 Forget the theory and the lectures, this hard-hitting panel will give attendees the street smart perspective on social media marketing.  Whether you’re a supplier, wholesaler or retailer, social media marketing must be an integral part of your marketing strategy,  The panel will provide the straight scoop on:

-What does success look like?

-Case histories with lessons learned that you can leverage right now.

- What are the wrong ways to use Facebook and Twitter, and how do you handle temperamental bloggers?

-Why  social media marketing needs to be a core strategy- the liquid in marketing’s bottle and not the label slapped on top.

- Should your distiller be tweeting?

The panel was assembled and will be moderated by Steve Raye of Brand Action Team. Also on the panel are Alyssa Rapp of Bottlenotes.com, Kit Codik of Liquor.com, Camper English of Alcademics.com (hey, that's me!), and Vincenza Kelly of ItalTrade/Vino 2011.

This should be interesting because Steve Raye is a social media marketing consultant, Alyssa and Kit do websites but interact with brands throwing large and small events, relatively, Vincenza coordinated the social media aspect of an event from the front end, and I'm a blogger and journalist. We have different needs from brands and their social media marketing, and thus will have different perspectives on what brands need to do to be more effective in the socia media space. 

I'm looking forward to it, and if you're attending the WSWA in Orlando this April I hope you'll join us there. 

SF Event: Drinks of the Eighties at Heaven's Dog this Saturday

From 9-1 this Saturday February 26th, Heaven's Dog in San Francisco will be serving a special menu of drinks from the 1980s. Naturally they'll be given upgrades in the Heaven's Dog style with bitters, organic citrus, and better liquor than you  had the first time around.

Below is the menu, but rumor has it they've managed to located some Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers too. 

Now excuse me while I rumage through my closet for my Members Only jacket to wear to the event.

COCKTAILS AND DREAMS

HEAVENS DOG SALUTES THE 80’S AND THE DRINKS YOU LOVE TO HATE

 

SLOW COMFORTABLE SCREW

House SoCo (Peach infused Old Bardstown Bourbon), Plymouth Sloe gin, Plymouth gin, organic orange juice

PINK DAQUIRI JELLO SHOTS

  Lime, El Dorado rum, Peychaud’s bitters

TEQUILA SUNRISE

There was a time when Kurt Russel and the Tequila Sunrise reigned supreme.

Herencia Tequila, organic orange juice, lime, cassis

BIRTHDAY CAKE SHOTS

Madagascar vanilla bean infused vodka, Frangelico, sugared lemon

LONG ISLAND ICE TEA

A four bottle free pour of all of the white spirits, lemon, sugar, cola

KAMIKAZE

Vodka, lime, Cointreau (sub gin and bitters on request)

PINK SQUIRREL

Jennifer’s pink crème de noyeau and crème de cacao shaken with cream

FROZEN STRAWBERRY MARGARITA

Now we finally have an answer to “what kind of margarita’s do you have”  why organic strawberries with lime and Herencia blanco of course.

 

Choosing Seminars for the Manhattan Cocktail Classic

For the second year of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, they are having people vote on which seminars they'd like to see.

I hope the ones I've proposed are of interest, as I'd like to come to New York this May. To vote, simply go to this page and select a minimum of 5 and not more than 30 seminars you're interested in. You get one vote per email and you must do so before February 16th.

(Shortcut: Search for "Camper" and click those three first.)

My proposed talk topics are below:

23. Tequila is the New Vodka, Tequila is the New Scotch
with Camper English

Tequila is one of the fastest-growing spirit categories in America, with a slew of new brands hitting store shelves each month. But is the tequila becoming the new vodka: over-saturated with expensive designer bottles, celebrity sponsorships and flavorless imitation brands that are all made at the same few distilleries? Or is the 100-percent agave category more like scotch whisky, showcasing innovation in ingredient sourcing and processing, barrel finishing and distillation technology while working within the rigid framework of government regulations? Join this lively debate moderated by journalist Camper English in which we discuss the rapidly-changing tequila category and all the hope and hype that comes with growth.

24. The Reluctant Blogger: Using Social Media for People Who'd Rather Not
with Camper English

This session will focus on the fastest and easiest tools and formats of blogging and other social media for people who are technically challenged or reluctantly dipping their toes into the new century: writers who want to promote their work, brands and brand ambassadors who want to share news (and not rely on expensive designers to make small site changes), PR agencies who want to share their clients' placements, bartenders who want to promote themselves, and bars who want to keep their calendars current and customers updated. In this fast-moving era, everyone should have a website and no website should be static.

In this fast-paced session, blogger/journalist Camper English will review the top blog hosts and platforms (WordPress, TypePad, SquareSpace, Tumblr, etc. and whether or not to just use Facebook for everything) to compare set-up and ease-of-use, describe effective strategies for getting content online quickly, and choosing the right platform for different content: links, scans/photos, videos, events, and text. Then we'll look at the best tools for other social media (FourSquare, Ping, TweetDeck, etc.) the best practices for using Facebook, Twitter and your blog to avoid excessive cross-posting, and discuss how to use social media with only your cell phone on the subway. Participants should leave with a clear plan of action based on their individual content needs, budgets, and goals.

25. Terroir in Spirits
with Camper English

Terroir, a.k.a. "sense of place", is a term for how the the soil, geography and climate of a particular place contribute unique qualities to the crops grown on/in it. In wine this concept is well understood. In spirits, though much more processing is done to the raw ingredients, terroir can sometimes show through to the final product. In this seminar we'll discuss terroir in spirits generally and look deeper specifically at tequila, cognac/armagnac, French and Brazilian rums, and scotch whisky with experts in each on the panel. Attendees will learn about (and taste) terroir in spirits to come away with an understanding of the concept generally and qualities of terroir specific to different spirit categories.